Electronic devices, including portable electronic devices, have gained widespread use and may provide a variety of functions including, for example, telephonic, electronic messaging and other personal information manager (PIM) application functions. Portable electronic devices include, for example, several types of mobile stations such as simple cellular telephones, smart phones, wireless personal digital assistants (PDAs), and laptop computers with wireless 802.11 or Bluetooth capabilities.
Text-to-speech synthesis can be used in a number of applications to convert normal language text into speech, and can be implemented in software or hardware. For example, those who are visually impaired may use text-to-speech systems to read textual material. The use of text-to-speech synthesis can be useful in portable electronic devices, such as for the reading of email and text messages.
Improvements in devices using text-to-speech synthesis are desirable.